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MoodleMoot Australia begins in just a few days and we can’t wait to see you in Brisbane!

Get ready to learn about the latest developments on the Moodle learning platform; share best practices with your peers; network with professionals and technology providers – and have a great time at the Moodle Party!

Get informed

Find everything you need to know about MoodleMoot Australia 2018 in our Moot Pack. Check it out for key information, travel tips and more.

Used by major educational institutions and publishers, the ReadSpeaker suite of text-to-speech solutions increases efficacy and extends the reach of online content by instantly creating an audio version of content in-line with the Universal Design for Learning concepts.

ReadSpeaker has built a plugin that can be seamlessly integrated into your version of Moodle. The plugin is very simple to implement and can be positioned in various places in your Moodle LMS, so students will have no difficulty finding and using the listen button.

ReadSpeaker’s listen functionality can be activated in Moodle on a course-by-course basis. Learners can listen to HTML content as well as documents with the ReadSpeaker functionality, a complete enhancement of the learning experience!

Moodle HQ: What will ReadSpeaker be presenting at MoodleMoot Australia 2018? What topics can we look forward to?

ReadSpeaker: ReadSpeaker will be presenting WebReader for Moodle. WebReader is ReadSpeaker’s new text to speech integration for Moodle. Accredited by Vision Australia, WebReader is the only WCAG 2.0 AA text to speech integration available for Moodle.

Moodle HQ: What can attendees expect from visiting the ReadSpeaker stand at MoodleMoot Australia 2018?

ReadSpeaker: ReadSpeaker has built a plugin that can be seamlessly integrated into your version of Moodle. The plugin is very simple to implement and can be positioned in various places in your Moodle LMS, so students will have no difficulty finding and using the listen button.

ReadSpeaker will be demonstrating our suite of text to speech learning tools our stand during the MoodleMoot.

MoodleMoot Australia is an undoubtedly unique edtech event. As well as the expected ingredients – keynotes, presentations and panel sessions – there is the addition of innovative workshops and “hands on” experiences.

Dr Stephen Dann is providing such an experience. A Certified Lego® Serious Play™ Facilitator, a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University and a long time Moodle operator, Stephen has extensive edtech experience.

He discussed his role at MoodleMoot Australia with us, let’s see what he said…

Moodle: Let’s jump in at the deep end, can tell us what you have in store for us at MoodleMoot Australia 2018?

Stephen: Two shows and a matinee!

Personally, I’m giving a talk on how the Lego Serious Play (LSP) process has enabled me to reach out to my students in a different way to get them to think about what they want from the LMS experience. In the time honoured tradition of show, not just tell, I’ll be running a very similar workshop experience for team Moodle on understanding the next phase of the Moodle development process using the LSP approach to help give people a taste of the method, and a chance to feedforward into Moodle’s evolution.

Moodle: Lego Serious Play sounds like serious fun, but aside from a good time, what can attendees hope to gain from it?

Stephen: The Serious Play process we’re running at the MoodleMoot is a chance for participants to give their suggestions, feedforward and guidance to the Moodle crew, through a new experience.

We’ve all done surveys for suggestions before, or broken out the butcher’s paper and sticky labels for idea storming. Here, with the Lego, we’re giving people a shot at a new process of surfacing ideas, of sharing experiences, and helping the Moodle community and you get to play with Lego on purpose for a couple of hours.

Moodle: It sounds great, how can MoodleMoot attendees we get involved?

Stephen: Sign up for the workshop, we really have limited space, and the organising team worked overtime to squeeze the most opportunity for participants to be involved out of the space. After that, come on down to the session, and experience the combination of Serious Play and idea sharing for helping the development of Moodle.

If you can’t make the session, I do have a little something for the main area – I’m bringing thirty (30) kilos or so of Lego out to MoodleMoot for people to use for their brain’s palette cleanser between sessions. The Lego Creativity Space (aka the Lego Puddle) is there all conference to give people a space and place to play, maybe sketch out ideas in Lego over a conversation, or just trust your hands to guide your build. Come for the Moodle, play with the bricks, and stay connected with others. That’ll be running for the three days, and I’ll be around there between sessions if people want a chat.

Moodle: This has made it onto our “MoodleMoot to do list”! However we want to know what YOU are looking forward to experiencing.

Stephen: Being a little cheeky here, I am looking forward to running the session because I get to see amazing ideas come to life.

Then again, that’s what I come to MoodleMoot for – a change to see new ideas in play, to witness the early mode of Moodle upgrades, and hangout with fellow friends of the Moodle community to see what we can get the platform to do next.
More information

No MoodleMoot is complete without a show-stopping Moodle Party. They give you the opportunity to network and celebrate the Moot in an informal way.

Taking place at the iconic Fox Hotel, the MoodleMoot Australia 2018 Moodle Party is set to be bigger and better than ever before. In addition to dancing, drinks and entertainment, we have decided to go one step further with a fun-filled hat competition!

It’s simple to get involved, all you need to do is wear a hat to the party! From trilbies to tiaras, the possibilities are endless.

When you’re packing for Brisbane don’t forget to throw your best headgear into your suitcase, the wearer of the most creative hat, as decided by Moodle HQ, will win a prize.

Enhancing your Moodle site, discovering the plugin you need or finding new ways to empower your e-learning project are only some of the things that our MootAU18 sponsors can do for you. Attend their presentations at the Moot and talk to them in the exhibition area to get ideas and insights on edtech and development!

Today we talk to our sponsor Echo360 about their participation in the Moot and the new features of their solution that they will be presenting.

Moodle HQ: Let’s start with a summary of what is Echo360, and what services can Moodlers access from Echo360 to enhance or extend their Moodle sites?

Confusion indicator so students can alert their instructors when they are feeling lost

And because students use it to engage with instructors, peers, and course content, Echo360 can provide unique learning analytics that no other platform can. Instructors can see a customised engagement score for each student and drill down on individual learning activities

Moodle HQ: What can attendees expect from visiting the Echo360 stand at MoodleMoot Australia 2018?

Echo360: This past year, innovation has been a major theme here at Echo360, and we are excited to show you all the new features that we’ve recently launched and are currently developing including universal capture and our automated speech recognition partnership with Amazon. We’ve come a long way since our lecture capture days. We now support all your video needs across your institution to include:

Recording & Streaming

Video Management

Video Learning & Engagement

Student Analytics

We strengthen teaching and learning communities through leading video platform technology designed to work the way your instructors and students do. Best of all, we’re the only solution you’ll need.

Moodle HQ: Lastly, how can someone keep in touch with information and updates from Echo360?

This year’s devjam is the perfect place for developers to share ideas, learn tips and tricks from each other and Moodle HQ developers whilst working together to problem-solve and take your own practice to the next level.

Are you attending MoodleMoot Australia 2018? Interested in participating in our devjam workshops on Wednesday 26 September? If so, what would you like to learn? Please enrol in our devjam Moodle course and add your suggestions to the forum!

MoodleMoots are a space to talk about edtech, collaborate and share best practices around Moodle. They also have a dedicated space where you can speak to our Moodle Partners and MoodleMoot sponsors and learn how to expand and enhance your Moodle sites.

Catalyst is one of our international Moodle Partners and Moot supporters, specialist in open source and working with Moodle since 2003. They will be at MootAU18, and we have spoken to them about how they can help boost your e-learning projects and about what they will be sharing with us at the event.

Moodle HQ: For those new to Moodle or the Moodle Partnership network, would you be able to please tell us a little bit about Catalyst Australia? What services do you provide? How does Catalyst extend an organisation’s Moodle site?

Catalyst: Catalyst is a global group of open source software specialists offering the full suite of Moodle services. From front-end consulting through to custom feature development. Catalyst has been involved in the Moodle project since 2004.

Catalyst has a global team of Moodle specialists offering fully managed cloud Moodle platforms to the education, corporate and government market. Catalyst also performs bespoke consulting engagements for our clients with on-prem Moodle instances.

Catalyst manages some of the largest Moodle instances in Australasia.

Catalyst regularly contributes to Moodle core and has over 30 of open source plugins available in the Moodle plugins database!

Moodle HQ: What can attendees expect from visiting the Catalyst Australia stand at MoodleMoot Australia 2018?

Catalyst: Attendees visiting the Catalyst stand will be able to talk to senior members of Moodle development and delivery teams. Please take the opportunity to come by as we love talking to people about their Moodle uses, the benefits they have seen and any challenges that you might be experiencing. First and foremost we are motivated and excited by solving our clients problems.

We’ll also be happy to demo some of the open source plugins that we have developed that are free to the community. There are some handy tools for scheduled outage management and cloud file storage.

Catalyst also have a number of other offerings in the open source space, having recently launched our Open Learning initiative.

Moodle HQ: Lastly, how can someone keep in touch with information and updates from Catalyst Australia?

We’re excited to announce the addition of an inspiring educational leader to MoodleMoot Australia 2018. A teacher, consultant, writer and educational leader, Erica McWilliam is an advocate for quality education.

Erica’s career has involved four decades as an Australian secondary teacher, educator and writer, moving from two decades in the schooling sector to a professorial role as an educational leader in the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and in Singapore at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang University. She is now a Fellow of the Australian Council of Educators and an Associate Fellow of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

For MoodleMoot Australia 2018, Erica will explore how quality learning routines depend on accessibility and seamlessness. In particularly, she will encourage attendees to “look over the horizon at the digital environment and consider how platforms such as Moodle can create an environment that will result in strong learning outcomes.”

Our Moodlemoot conferences focus on encouraging collaboration and sharing ideas with industry-leading experts from around the world. “As a consultant I need to learn and inform myself. There is so much we can get from each other, like the understanding of how the environments work best, and how to plan for future education.” said Erica.

Check out more details about Erica’s MoodleMoot Australia presentation.

Let’s find out why you should join eCreators in Brisbane for #MootAU18, 24-26 September, and what you can expect from them there.

Moodle HQ: Can you please tell us a little bit about eCreators? What services do you provide and how do eCreators extend an organisation’s Moodle site?

eCreators: eCreators are an award winning commercial Moodle Partner in Australia and Singapore. We are experts in workplace learning and are well known in the corporate, government, emergency services and NFP space.

eCreators develop many elearning courses per year on a variety of topics from policing through to compliance. eCreators are based in Melbourne Australia with clients all over the world.

eCreators: eCreators will be presenting the work they created in 2018 for VicRoads – a Premier sponsored program for year 10 students, with the single aim of reducing the road toll for 18-25 year olds across Victoria. The program is already in use across all Victorian schools.

We will also be presenting the work we have done with The Smith Family, the Mentor Program which is used by thousands of students to mentor them anonymously into finding the right future career. This program won the 2017 ACS Digital Disruption Award.

Moodle HQ: What can attendees expect from visiting the eCreators stand at MoodleMoot Australia 2018?

eCreators: We will have a life size iPhone so you can try the Moodle app! Its 6 feet tall! You’ll be able to see this, plus many of our recent projects and content, plus go into the draw for prizes!

Moodle HQ: Lastly, how can someone keep in touch with information and updates from eCreators?